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California Gender Mandate Will Hurt Boards

Diversity also needs to reflect ethnic, global, digital and technology diversity, not just gender.

Sept. 9, 2018 1:16 p.m. ET

As a veteran member of more than 20 corporate boards, including Volvo Car AB and Wynn Resorts Ltd., I hope that the bill that requires major companies based in California to put female directors on their boards (“State Pushes for Women on Boards,” U.S. News, Aug. 30) isn’t signed into law.

The marketplace is already working and we are seeing significant shifts in the addition of women joining public boards. For example, major index funds are now mandating that companies must have a minimum of two women directors or else they...